Phonologist

I am a professor of linguistics who works on phonology and phonetics: speech sounds in languages.

My main language interest is Russian, but my work is directed at an understanding of language in general. My work combines formal analysis, usually within Optimality Theory, with experimental methodologies. I am particularly interested in the role of contrast and perceptual distinctiveness in phonetics and phonology.

One of my recent projects, with Ryan Bennett, Grant McGuire, and Máire Ní Chiosáin, uses ultrasound to investigate the production of consonants in Irish Gaelic. Here is our first paper from this project.

Another recent project, with Scott Myers, uses artificial language learning experiments to test the hypothesis that speakers are biased to internalize utterance-final generalizations as word-final ones, accounting for facts like word-final devoicing. You can find a few recent papers about this here.